“There are five things that you have to leave to the side for practicing the martial arts and also in life in general. This is what Takamatsu Sensei told me as well.
First, put aside anger and fury.
Secondly, guard against your heart becoming to soft and allowing laziness to enter into your heart.
Third, put aside ambition and avarice. If you allow yourself to get to fixed on one particular thing you loose sight of reality in general.
Fourth, another thing you must leave to the side is thinking that you are better then you are and that there is nothing more for you to learn.
Fifth, also leave to the side suspicions and doubts and recognize where these suspicions and doubts come from so you can be able to not be influenced from them.”
“These five points have their origins in Buddhism and that you really do have to understand these in order to practice fully the martial arts or life in general.
Ask yourself how do you practice the martial arts correctly?”
A Ninja must be able to take bits and pieces of information in, process them and then extract what a stuation, subject or knowledge area is trying to do or impart. The following process has been utilized by many intelligence gathering networks including the Dept. of Defense Intelligence group.
Take a sheet of paper and divide it into 4 sections. In the Upper right hand corner label it “GOAL”. On the upper left hand corner label “KNOWN/KNOWN”. On the bottom left corner label “KNOWN/UNKNOWN”’ and finally on the bottom right hand corner label “UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN”.
The process of dividing out one’s knowledge of a subject into facts you know, facts you do not know, and the important pieces of knowledge out there that you piece together through this process will allow you to solve many questions posed before you.
The process starts by continuing to ask yourself the following questions:
1) What is the goal of this action, project, subject or task?
2) What do I know about this subject, action project or task?
3) What do I not know about this subject, action, project or task?
4) What do I know that might lead me to something I do not know?
By repetitively asking these questions, writing the answers and reviewing the next question, in a constant manner you will quickly begin to put the pieces of the puzzle before you into order. I have used this process to help determine the actions an enemy may take, a potential criminal investigation, and even when learning a new subject area.
Now you have a new tool in your Ninja Tradecraft repertoire!
I may have been off line for a bit, I needed to recharge the batteries and get ready for some serious information posting! This video clip is from the Shinden Fudo ryu training dvd. It highlights the power of training in nature. I am planning a few videos this weekend so be ready to see them launch here and on You tube.
You have heard a crash from another room, you silently leave your bed and have to move to where your weapons and or gear are, but are you ready?
Alright ninjutsu practitioners, here is another lesson for you to add to your routine practice. This one will involve familiarizing and moving throughout your household in total darkness.
Step 1: All lights are off and curtains drawn so as to prevent outside ambient light from entering the rooms of your home.
Step 2: Move as silently as possible from room to room. If you have a family have them join in on this exercise. At this point in the exercise if you have weapons hidden in your home or have an escape plan in place, now is the time to see if you can reach them or escape in total darkness.
Step 3: With the lights out concentrate on your other senses to help guide you through your home.
Step 4: After exercise review with all participants and ee what the weaknesses were. Who was the loudest? Were you able to get to a safe area? Were you able to secure your weapons? Review and practice this exercise to increase your night movement skills within your home, it may save your life in the future.
Life and death are connected. Like In-Yo (Yin & Yang). This is my teaching theme for the year. Like a magnet and metal, life and death are attracted to each other, always getting closer. If you are born and given a life, death is inevitable. When death comes do not be surprised or shaken. Get on the rhythm of life. Get in balance with it. This is the theme of the year. That is why I tell my students it does not matter how skilled one becomes in martial arts or even Ninjutsu for that matter, if one can not attain this balance or rhythm. This is the basis for the Kihon Happo! Not the forms!
If you keep practicing the form it does not produce any real results. Always doing the forms is a childish way to practice. There are even times when the form can be what gets you killed. Often I hear my students argue over topics like “the correctness of this form” or “this posture should be this way” and such. True battle or real fights are never correct, in form or spirit! It is not about that. If you think the opponent is strong you will naturally go and get something such as a rifle and “boom”!!! Right? Very simple isn’t it? This type of common sense or “obvious ways” are important. This is why I teach my students:
Jiyu ni, atarimae ni, Jibun de narai, jibun de ikiro!
Freely, with common sensibility, learn on your own, live on your own!
Even though I have many students, I do not need them, but they still come to see me right? This is because I teach them how to teach themselves. This is why they come to me. But this is very different from just making up a Ryuha and such. This is the real path I teach. All around me I have many strong friends from many countries. Most of them are people who had to survive wars in their own homelands. They are all the real thing, real warriors. We understand each other on a certain level. My training with Takamatsu Sensei has made me aware of these types of people. It is like we are our own species. Even you Sean, you had to fight for your own survival on several occasions, right? You even got stabbed from behind. You had courage and a keen mind to help you survive. But your poor opponent! Ha ha ha!!!! Bad guys are always planning something devious. They are “big idea” people, always coming up with some kind of con. But it is important to develop the mind to withstand these types of people, learn to perceive them. My way is to never think about anything at all. You know me, I am usually not really thinking about any one thing in particular. It is just a matter of “keep going”.
This is the best way to guide your students. This is the way it is when you train with me. When my senior Japanese students make mistakes and go astray I get on them and scold them. It is the same with all my students all over the world. I have no borders. I do not hold anything back from the non-Japanese. I do everything on a man to man basis. This is the way it has always been. If I do not teach this way my students may be killed when the time comes. It would be very sad for me. This is why I do not teach in a strange and unnatural manner. I teach people to teach themselves… freely!
“In the old days, there were no pharmacies. You had to know how to create your own medicines and cures. Therefore, the ninja had to know how to do such things himself. Today, however, you can get medicines from a drugstore. As for homemade gun powder, it is so dangerous. It is not safe to make such things in your home.
You do not need to know how to make it. You do need to study subjects like chimon (geography) and tenmon (weather conditions and star patterns). There are so many things that you should know besides taijutsu. As for poison, you may not be able to use poison formulas from ancient times. Many things were regarded as deadly poisons because there were no antidotes in the old days.
Today, many drugs we have, take away the deadliness of what was a poison yesterday.
It is important to let your students know that there are so many other items to learn outside of the taijutsu training. These items of knowledge should constantly be updated. How about electronics? Or flying an airplane? In the old days, there was the bugei juhappan, or classifications of warrior knowledge”. Now, in the modern ages, that might be closer to 180. A ninja has to know everything. Otherwise it is difficult or impossible to complete his mission. “
Now, the tagline on this website and my personal training philosophy is “Taking the powerful ancient ninja strategies and techniques and utilize them in real world, modern applications.”. Sensei Manaka’s words hold so true to this it almost scared me when I came across this writing in my notes from the 90’s. In many of the free blog lessons presented here, I have always taken the “traditional” and applied it to a “modern” situation. Without doing so, the art of ninjutsu would become stagnant, and wither and die. Even within the “taijutsu” skills, a modern practitioner must incorporate a realistic approach to their training, applying the fighting skills in the ring against a live, hitting opponent. Why would your other skills that derive from the Ninja Juhappan, be stagnant? They shouldn’t and that is why you will always find a modern application being taught here! So, before you go to your next practice, or begin to learn a traditional strategy, think how would you translate this into something you will use in today’s modern environment!.
During your training in Budo Taijutsu, you will transition through many stages. Along this path, you will have to overcome many obstacles that hinder your progress. Many students wonder about what to concentrate on, or what is right or wrong at each of these stages. They see us training on the kihon happo, and various henka, and ask me “what is right?” The answer is shu – ha – ri.
To grasp the principles contained in shu – ha – ri, you must start at shu(Protect).
Shu (Protect)
In “protecting” one’s art, and at the simplest of understanding, each of us, have to start with the fundamentals of our art, and practice them diligently. There is no need to forget them, in fact you must master them for a true understanding of that which you practice. Training daily in the fundamentals of the sanshin no kata, happo no sabbaki, kihon happo, and the kata of the various ryuha that comprise the curriculum of budo taijutsu. In Soke Hatsumi’s words,
“It means a Budoka obeying that which he must while pursuing Bufu Ikkan, and refers to a process where one is consistent and single minded about observing kihon happo, budo techniques, one’s attitude when learning budo, and the rules of training.”
Ha (Break)
To “break” one needs to understand. Here is where I find many people lose track of the purpose of a technique. The purpose is to teach a principle that applies to a specific attack situation (kata). The purpose of varying from the technique (henka) is to expand upon your understanding, and application of a technique or principle. To break away, is the step, which begins to internalize the nature of Budo Taijutsu. Too many beginners want to start with all the fancy variations that Instructors teach or demonstrate, but yet how can they if they do not have a proper understanding of the basics. Many walls are put in front of a student often hindering his progress towards greater understanding of budo. Your mind, your body, grasping at understanding, these are one’s that all students face. Words of wisdom were passed to Soke Hatsumi from Takamatsu sensei, that go like this,
“As for walls, think of them as being made out of ice. If you are a man who possesses a warm heart of natural justice, Hatsumi, hitting a wall will be no problem. Walls made of ice will just melt!”
Ri (Leave behind)
Now we come to “ri” or leave behind. The ability to leave behind technique, is one of the highest aspirations of a martial artist. We have seen Morihei Ueshiba, Hatsumi Soke, Bruce Lee, and so many others who achieved a state that, many of us dream to achieve. It is spoken of as “mushin”(no mind), the ability to deal with whatever comes. It doesn’t matter “how”, just deal with it as it happens from wherever your body is, or is going. We focus so much on what we have to do (technique), that we often lose what the ultimate purpose of the technique was (survival). Again to quote sensei Hatsumi,
“The fifth dan test, is a process for entering into “ri”, in order to grasp incomprehensible techniques, movements, forms, and thoughts which neither the opponent nor yourself understands, you leave yourself behind.”
Through diligent practice, a student (and we are all students) will gain an understanding to the insights of true budo. Not any one technique or principle, but all and none applied to the purpose of your self protection.
As a final note, Miyamoto Musashi, in the chapter titled “Void” from the “Book of Five Rings”, writes
“What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge. Of course the void is nothingness. By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.
People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment.
In the Way of strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even al little from the Way of the warrior. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.
Until you realise the true Way, whether in Buddhism or in common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we lood at things objectively, from the viewpoint of laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, and with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly.
Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.
In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.”
Twelfth day of the fifth month, second year of Shoho (1645).
Within the ancient Ninja skill sets was that of Tenmon or weather forecasting. In the early days there was no “weather channel” to turn to see what tomorrow’s weather would bring you as such early Ninja developed several clues based upon their observation of nature that helped them prepare for the day. Similar in fashion to our own “Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning” allegory, the ninja’s power of observation of all things came heavily into play. Now although not perfect here are two observations from the past on precipitation:
If it begins around midnight or 4pm, it will last for a long time.
If it begins about 10 am or 6 am, it should stop & the day will be fine
Now how can you improve your Tenmon skills? Follow on my young ninja and learn a bit more:
1) Study the sky! Learn what the different shades and colors of the sky tell you about the upcoming weather.
2) Learn the various cloud types and formations.
3) Learn the basic directions for most storms in your area. (Hint…follow the jet stream)
4) Observe the animals. Many people say that animals are more in tune with the natural flow of weather and act differently pre- event.
5) Record you lessons learned and review and improve your skills as you go forward.
Now I have to watch the snow falling, it is a quiet and relaxing way to prepare for the exercise tomorrow.
What made Soke Hatsumi, Takamatsu, Ueshiba, Takeda, and a long list of samurai, ninja, and martial artist able to reach a pinnacle in the arts? Well as the title states, it was and is hard core training. Many people do not know that Ueshiba’s early dojo was also nicknamed Jigoku dojo or Hell dojo. Sokaku Takeda, head master of the Daito ryu, was feared for his intense methods of training. A few of you can remember training in the basement of my home a few years ago. Do you also remember the intense training? We had few mats to practice with, never mind dodging the lolly column or the cramped space. Training was austere and hard. Lately, I have noticed a slack in the training as we practice today in our new dojo. That bothers me! I want all of my students to surpass my skill, but that won’t happen if you only haphazardly train, once a week and live on Fruit loops. I hope that this article will help you recognize the changes that are being implemented in our dojo as you read this. Have I peaked your curiosity yet? Let’s move on.
Shinken gata
“True sword training.” When we practice we must train with the intensity of a real attack. This is the essence of shinken gata. When attacking act like it is an attack on a real opponent. Don’t stop your punch 1 foot away from him. How is your partner supposed to learn, if not from a real attack. When receiving, receive the attack. Learn to be able to take ukemi and continue to train without injury. Do not fight your opponent attack, you are liable to be injured if you do. Train as a team, equal in each responsibility. Giving and taking, sharing and learning through practice(safely). Our training will be very demanding, especially to the upper ranks, but through severe training you learn to deal with a real attack when it happens, and not just talk about it from the hospital bed. You will notice an increase in the pace and intensity of our classes. My uke( upper levels) will have to learn to receive a technique, well! I would like to refer you to a quote from Shoto Tanemura of the Genbukan dojo;
“In the past, severe training was the proper tradition, but now days people tend to avoid it as much as possible. Sometimes being ruthless or withstanding brutality is part of the art of self protection. Easy training will not make it possible to protect you from attack and danger. When your life is in danger and you are totally involved in survival you can easily endure severe injuries and hardships. Remember “Suetmi no Seishin” which is the spirit to fearlessly throw your life away. More literally, this is about your spirit/soul.”
(Although Tanemura san does not train in the Bujinkan anymore, what he says still rings true.)
Have you ever heard the idiom “No pain, No gain.” Well it is also true in the martial arts. You cannot train easily and expect great results. Just as you cannot just meditate and expect to be able to handle a large physical attacker with your mental ability. At the 5th degree test, we are supposed to feel the intention of the attack and avoid it, but what good does it do us if we cannot counter that attack once we have felt it. This problem has plagued the Bujinkan dojo(all) for many years. Some schools, such as the European and Isreali, have strengthened the requirements for testing.(You will see this in the next article). For us, it means that we all have to make a commitment to train seriously, but to still enjoy and not injure ourselves or partners.
I would like to suggest the following training routine for all students and instructors alike:
#1) Start with ryutai junan taiso. Flexibility is a key in our art and in life in general. Stretch 3-4 a week, and always before class.
#2) Increase your aerobic capacity by running, jogging, skipping rope etc.
#3) Emphasize the basics. The Kihon happo and Sanshin no kata, ukemi, and taisabakki.
#4) Train with an open mind and heart. Train as if you knew nothing. Always strive to learn more. Have a constantly questing heart. You must temper this with not always asking “What if?” Just do! And your answer to the “What if?” will appear before you.
#5) Always train with intensity. Give your training, and your partner’s, all you can. You should be tired at the end of class. If not, ask yourself if you gave it your all.
Many people assume that Soke Hatsumi’s way of movement now, is how they should train. I would like to refute all of them by saying NO WAY! Soke has trained for many years at a very intense level. Only once he completed this training did his method of movement come to him. That and that he once was very ill and could not train in this manner. His new emphasis at the Hombu dojo is, true fighting method. Not some play acting disguised as a fighting method. As we move into a new year, I hope all who will train here will understand the idea of Shinken Gata.
” You need to have ferociousness in a real fight!”
Alright, I was away for a few days and I get a flood of emails asking where is the next podcast! So here it is, I will be discussing the Ninja Juhappan, what to expect in future episodes and how many podcasts to expect each month. Enjoy!
